Kindred Spirits
by Alurax
Summary: Does Peeves like the Weasley twins?


Fred whipped around the corner onto the fifth floor, closely followed by George. They were winded, but each had broad grins plastered on their faces.

Considering he'd spent a large chunk of his time since they'd gotten to the school chasing the twins down, Filch normally could keep pace with them fairly well, but the fact that his clothes were weighted down with what must have been over ten gallons of water, (and Weasleys know what else) he was falling short. Course it also didn't help his case that they knew the secret hide always of the castle far better than he did.

They squeezed out from behind one of the statues, which led to one of the lower floors. If they could just make it back to the Gryffindor common room, they'd be safe. Well, safer.

Unfortunately something neither of them could see happened, and Fred still kicks himself for his own stupidity.

He heard Filch yelling after them, (as he too just pulled from behind the statue) and looked back to see if he was in sight yet, still laughing at the annoyed caretaker. His attention diverted, he missed seeing George jump over one of the steps in the staircase. A step he should've known himself to skip. Instead, his foot slipped right through the step, as if it was quicksand. He cried out, mostly from shock, and reached out to grab George for some kind of support, but only succeeded in knocking his brother down the rest of the stairs. The step dropped him straight up to his hip, and kicked his left leg out at a very awkward and painful angle.

George knocked his head against the adjacent wall, at the bottom of the stairs. He shook his head together enough to take a look around and see what had hit him. He gasped when he saw Fred struggling to try and pull his leg out, with little if any success. Quickly, he got to his feet and ran back up to try and pull him out. No matter how much he pulled, he couldn't get Fred out of the stair's grip. Course Fred's free leg was causing more trouble than you'd think, considering the angle made it difficult for even him to get a good footing. Secretly, they wished both legs had gotten caught.

George tried every angle he could think of, but if anything worked, it didn't work for long. He seemed to be injuring his twin more then helping.

"I'm not letting you get away this time. You two are finally gonna get it." He always said that, but this time they were afraid he could actually make real of his threat. Filch didn't seem to realize which way they had gone yet, but their current situation didn't bode well. "George, just go."

"What?"

Fred pushed at the stairs some more, but still made no difference. "It's my fault I got stuck here. There's no reason for him to catch both of us. Just get yourself out of here."

"Shut up. No matter what happens, we're both in trouble. I'm not letting you take the brunt of it."

Looking around fervently, George sat on the step next to him. "If only I could get some kind of leverage from both sides." There had to be something here he could use.

"Uh, oh. Look what we have here."

The twin's blood turned to ice. They recognized that voice. In shocked unison, both heads turned back towards the top of the stairs.

Peeves was hovering a few feet above the top step, his arms folded over his chest, a sinister grin stretching across his face.

They stared stone faced at the mischievous ghost. They'd run into Peeves a few times, but he didn't seem to bother them all that much. However, unlike the other ghosts who seemed to love the children enough to help out whenever, they knew this one reveled in the misery of the students at Hogwarts. Either throwing things and torturing them himself, but one of the main things he seemed to enjoy was pointing out trouble makers to staff.

"Looks like you boys are in a bit of a predicament." He sailed over their heads, probably to try and get a better look. "I always enjoyed watching you two torment Filchy, but he seems far angrier than usual. You really done it this time." He wafted in front of them, and started circling. "Ooh, this is quite a trouble, don't cha think. And here I thought you two were good at this."

"Come on, Peeves." Fred nearly pleaded. "Don't do it."

"Do what?" He smiled innocently.

George gripped Fred's shoulder, still trying to think of a way to get him out. "Whatever it is you're thinking about doing."

Peeves laughed, a lot louder than they would have liked. "Now, how do you know what I'm thinking?"

"You boys are dead when I find you." Filch sounded a lot closer now. And they were both sure he'd find a way to make this threat real, even if it was against the rules.

George got back to his feet, trying to pull Fred out again. He was convinced that if he pulled enough, his leg could finally come free. "Just keep quiet, and we'll get out of the way."

"Ha, no ya won't. You don't seem to be making much progress."

George had to adjust his grip as Fred tried to slip back out. "We'll manage."

Despite what Peeves seemed to think, they made more progress than they thought. Fred's leg was out to about the knee. Enough where he could try to position his other leg to push. If it wasn't numb where it fell asleep a little while ago.

They could hear Filch's footsteps coming closer, as Peeves flew past back towards the top of the stairs. He was gonna tell Filch where they were. However, the strain of trying to pull Fred's leg free of the stairs seemed to get easier, as Peeves grasped his other arm and helped yank him out the last few inches. Fred and George toppled unceremoniously onto the stairs. It took them a moment to realize what had just happened, both pairs of eyes shooting back up to Peeves in shock. The ghost just grinned broadly at them. "Told ya, ya didn't know what I was thinkin. Give 'em hell, boys." With that, Peeves wafted back up the stairs, and on around a corner.

"Peeves." They heard Filch cry a short time later. "Have you seen those damned Weasley's?"

"Can't be too sure. You're gonna have to be more specific. There are quite a few Weasley's running around this school."

"You know which ones I mean. The twins, Peeves."

"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. How will you ever know?"

During Peeves interaction with Filch, Fred and George exchanged looks of confusion. Nobody had ever reported to having Peeves intentionally helping anyone out. If he ever had it was only out of a desire to annoy Filch more than actually lending a hand, but this didn't seem like that. I suppose it was, in the long run, but wow.

The twins quickly got to their feet, and started running back along the corridors up towards Gryffindor tower. They always kinda liked how Peeves seemed to share in their past-time of tormenting Filch, but this was the first inclination they ever had that maybe he liked them back.

_AN: i really like this concept. i kinda wanna write more with these three tormenting FIlch. or, y'know, other such shenanigans. just trying to remind myself that not every inspiration i get is based off of Fred's death. I had a lot of others, but i just never wrote them down. And before i get rabid fans breathing down my neck i would just like to point out that i'm not wrong. Rowling is. Peeves is NOT a poltergeist. he is a ghost that's just strong enough to interact with the living world. a poltergeist is (in a nutshell) an uncontrolled manifestation of psychic energy. so XP_


End file.
